Wombat Security announced today that it is acquiring ThreatSim—a company that focuses on spear phishing prevention. The move magnifies Wombat’s security awareness training proficiencies to include a greater focus on one of the biggest cyber threats facing companies today.

Gartner recently recognized Wombat Security as a leader in the Magic Quadrdant for security awareness computer-based training. According to Gartner, Wombat is fourth among its peers in ability to execute, but leads all rivals when it comes to completeness of vision. Now that vision is even broader.

Phishing attacks present a uniquely serious threat to companies. The targeted nature of spear phishing attacks makes them much more likely to succeed in baiting an employee to share information, click a link, or open a malicious file. Cyber criminals are also evolving and adapting quickly to make much more convincing phishing emails that make it exceptionally difficult to differentiate between a legitimate email and a spear phishing attack.

An attacker that wants to gain access to a specific target company can use a spear phishing attack to compromise credentials of an authorized user or infect an endpoint inside the network with malware that provides him with a platform to conduct reconnaissance on the network and find other systems to exploit. Spear phishing attacks are more precise and targeted than a standard phishing attack, which makes it easier for the attacker to craft convincing bait and more difficult for potential victims to discern the difference.

A recent Ponemon Institute study—sponsored by Wombat Security—found that phishing attacks cost businesses an average of $3.77 million per year. That includes both the direct cost of responding to and cleaning up after successful phishing attacks, as well as the indirect costs of lost productivity from employees sifting through phishing emails trying to avoid getting compromised. The addition of the spear-phishing testing from ThreatSim will make Wombat’s security training more effective and valuable for customers.

“This is a great win for Wombat and ThreatSim, but most importantly for our current and future customers. Enterprises around the world now have access to the most innovative educational solutions to combat phishing attacks as well as all cyber-attacks from one company,” said Joe Ferrara, President and CEO Wombat Security in the company press release.

Wombat Security explained in a press release that it plans to integrate the ThreatSim spear phishing tools and testing capabilities into its existing security education platform. The resulting mix will give customers a more comprehensive security awareness education and enable companies to reduce the $3.77 million per year burden from phishing attacks.